


If You Say It With Your Hands

by imaginingstars



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alfred's only there for a blink and you'll miss it cameo, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bruce Wayne is a Bad Parent, But only a little bit bad, Implied/Referenced Character Death, It's Mild Angst But It's Still Angst, M/M, Mute Dick Grayson, Sign Language, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25593271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginingstars/pseuds/imaginingstars
Summary: Jason isn't convinced by the idea of soulmates. He can't tell for a very long time whether meeting Dick Grayson changes his opinion on that.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Comments: 14
Kudos: 379





	If You Say It With Your Hands

**Author's Note:**

> So the idea for this came from one of my close friends, and we workshopped it until it came together like this. I don't actually know sign language, especially ASL since I'm British, but I tried to research the key parts, as well as describe it to the best of my ability.
> 
> Title, much to my shame, comes from Treacherous by Taylor Swift

Jason’s never put much stock in soulmates. The idea of someone being destined for him? Of all people? They’d have to be pretty screwed up to fit perfectly with him.

He tries to never think about it, and he never asks anyone about their words. No-one’s really supposed to, anyway, unless they’re incredibly close to someone, it’s considered the height of tactlessness.

So he hides his words, and pretends that “What did you say?” isn’t seared into his forearm.

* * *

It hasn’t been long since he moved in when Jason walks into the cave to see Bruce scowling at someone he’s never met before. He knows him, though. He’s been half in love with him since he saw him on the trapeze years ago. It’s Dick Grayson, and if he weren’t busy sneering at Bruce, Jason would gush at him. Instead, he immediately strides over to join in.

“Hey! Why don’t you calm the hell down?” Jason doesn’t even register that he’s started speaking until Dick reels back. The former Robin’s eyebrows lower, and he taps his chin twice. Jason rolls his eyes. “What, got nothing to say for yourself? Just gonna keep glaring at B like he’s pissed in your cereal?”

Dick’s eyes go from wide, as they had been since Jason spoke to him, to narrowed. His facial expression falls into a snarl and he gives Jason a once-over before looking back at Bruce. His hands move in a flurry of gestures, and Jason’s hit with a sudden realisation as Bruce begins to speak.

“Of course I was going to teach him, Dick, don’t be ridiculous,” he says dismissively. Dick’s hands are still moving though, and Bruce keeps speaking. “He’s been here a month or so, there’s been no- Of course I’m not trying to talk over y- Well, then, give me time to- God DAMN it, Richard!” Bruce is finally, truly shouting. Dick throws his hands up in a clearly exasperated gesture and walks off. Jason doesn’t miss the shining in his eyes, though, and he doesn’t think Bruce does either.

Jason shoots Bruce a mildly concerned look before deciding to go after Dick. He finds the older boy on the roof of all places, looking up to see him when he searches the garden. He hesitates for a moment, then pulls himself up, climbing up the walls of the manor.

“Uh, hey,” he says, “I was kind of a dick back there. Ah fuck, no! That’s not what I- Oh, shit.”

His fumbling at least seems to make Dick’s stony expression thaw a little, and Dick pats the edge of the roof next to himself before pointing at Jason. It’s clear he’s trying his best to communicate without actually signing, and Jason appreciates the effort, sliding down next to the boy who Bruce had insisted is supposed to be his older brother.

“I didn’t realise you were signing,” Jason mumbles after a few minutes. Dick shrugs, automatically signing something before cutting himself off. He mimes writing in the air, before pointing at Jason and raising his hands in a questioning gesture. “Um... Not on me. Unless... Aha!” The embarrassing exclamation leaves his mouth as he pulls the world’s tiniest notebook and pen out of his pocket. He blushes, and Dick is clearly laughing despite not making a noise. He takes the notebook and pen from Jason and begins scrawling in it in loopy handwriting.

 _Wasn’t mad at you,_ Dick writes, _just Bruce._

“Still,” Jason pushes, “it wasn’t my place to get involved. I’m sorry.”

Dick gives him a genuine, breathtaking smile. _I forgive you then,_ he scribbles. Jason feels himself grinning back.

He figures that Dick’s just upset about arguing with Bruce when he sees the elder sobbing silently into Alfred’s shoulder, clutching at his right forearm.

* * *

‘ _How are you today?_ ’ Dick signs as he walks in five months later.

‘ _I’m alright,_ ’ Jason signs back clumsily, ‘ _How are you?_ ’

Despite rarely seeing Dick, Jason’s been trying to learn ASL from the internet and lessons whenever Dick has time. Unfortunately, they’re both rushed off their feet, and there’s barely a moment for Jason to practice; after all, neither Gotham nor Bludhaven will save themselves. 

‘ _Busy,_ ’ Dick replies with a grin, before moving his hands in a phrase that Jason doesn’t understand at all.

“Hey, how do I ask what you said?” Jason asks, and Dick is all set to answer when Bruce enters, dramatic as always.

“Dick, I need you down in the Cave,” he says, and Dick rolls his eyes. He moves his hands in another motion which Jason doesn’t understand but would place a bet means something along the lines of ‘what’s new.’ Dick shoots Jason a smile which melts the latter’s heart into a gooey puddle, and then heads off to the Cave, doing a handspring along the way just to prove he can.

Looks like ASL lessons will have to wait. Again.

* * *

Jason doesn’t know what makes him ask. It breaks his usual code, but he just can’t help it.

“Do you know who your soulmate is?”

Dick looks wary, and his face closes off, but he starts writing in the notebook he always has with him when he’s with Jason anyway.

_Yeah._

“Why aren’t you with them, then?”

_I don’t think they have my words. I have theirs, though._

“That’s shit,” Jason says. He means it wholeheartedly. How does he have words that people expect to change his whole life, but Dick’s been so utterly screwed over by the universe? He decides, once again, that soulmates are bullshit.

And then, alone in a warehouse in Ethiopia, he dies.

* * *

After he comes back, Jason has a lot of spare time. He uses some of it learning ASL properly, telling himself that it’s because the Bats all use it to communicate in the field when they need to be silent; apparently the Replacement has had much more time to learn it than he had. He knows he’s lying to himself. He has images in his head of understanding Dick, of them somehow reuniting despite what he’s planning on doing to Bruce.

He spends some of the remainder of his time scowling at his arm. Dying seems to have screwed up more than just his brain. His old soulmark is ever so slightly faded, still visible but definitely paler than it used to be. Printed underneath, looking absolutely identical in every way except for the darker text, is the same sentence.

“What did you say?”

* * *

When Jason finally sees Bruce and Dick again, Dick doesn’t even talk to him. Instead, the two properly speak to each other well over six months later. Jason’s following a lead up in Bludhaven, and Dick seems to be following the same one. Jason’s self-aware enough to know that that’s part of why he’s here. He wants to see Dick, to understand why the pushy vigilante hadn’t reached out to him.

He perches himself beside Dick, and the latter looks alarmed. He goes to move away, stopped only by Jason grabbing his arm.

“Come on, big bird, scared of little old me?”

It’s at that moment that Jason’s hit with deja vu. Dick’s eyes visibly widen behind the lenses of his domino, and his hands move rapidly to tap his chin twice. It’s exactly what he did the first time they met.

 _It means say_ , Jason’s brain tells him, _and it works as shorthand for a question_.

It means ‘What did you say?’

* * *

Jason’s not proud of running away. He does it anyway.

Dick’s look of surprise is something that’s always confused him about their first meeting. The alarm this time seems to cement it. Dick had told him that his soulmate didn’t have his words. Jason had privately thought that Dick’s soulmate sucked. Only one of them had been right, and it wasn’t Dick.

Jason just hadn’t understood the words.

He takes a deep breath. He may hate the concept of soulmates, but he’s been in love with Dick since the moment he saw him. That has to count for something.

Jason knows what he has to do. He has to talk to Dick.

* * *

Breaking into Dick’s apartment is worryingly easy. Jason slumps onto the couch, barely even registering the continued presence of his helmet. He’s reminded of it when Dick comes back through the window and immediately throws an escrima stick at him.

“Shit, Dick! What the hell?”

‘ _What are you doing here?_ ’ Dick signs furiously. His body is trembling, and if it were any other situation, Jason would assume it was caused by rage. He’s positive now that that’s not it. Dick’s crying. Jason doesn’t know if it’s distress over being left behind by his soulmate, or if Dick’s just upset that it’s him. 

“Dickie, please,” Jason starts, and Dick’s hands move again rapidly.

‘ _Don’t call me that!_ ’

“I’ve always called you that,” Jason says, confused, and when Dick does a double take, Jason’s heart sinks with the realisation.

‘ _Who are you?_ ’

Bruce didn’t tell him. Jason doesn’t know what else to do. So he reaches up and releases the catch on his helmet.

It falls to the ground with a dull thud, and he peels off the domino mask underneath immediately. Dick’s eyes widen, and he tugs off his own mask before hurling himself into the younger’s arms.

There’s no sound but strained breathing, and that’s when Jason realises he’d been right. Dick’s sobbing, body heaving with sounds he can’t articulate, only his breathing showing that there would be any noise whatsoever. The two stand there, faces buried in each other’s shoulders, and that’s when Jason realises he’s crying too.

* * *

‘ _I didn’t understand why I got two,_ ’ Dick signs later that night, wrapped in Jason’s embrace. ‘ _I guess it was just reassurance I got you twice over._ ’

“There are better people to have twice, Dickie,” Jason says, rolling his eyes.

‘ _I don’t think so_ ,’ the elder signs back, ‘ _You’ve always been perfect for me, Jaybird._ ’ He does the affectionate sign he’s always done for Jason, the initial combined with the sign for bird, and Jason’s heart stutters.

“I’m not perfect,” he replies.

He notes absently that he’s running his fingertips lightly over the two sentences on Dick’s arm. He can’t quite bring himself to care. 

‘ _I didn’t say perfect at everything. Just perfect for me._ ’

Jason can’t help the soft smile on his face. God, he really is gone for this man. 

“Name one thing I’ve ever done right by you,” he challenges.

‘ _You learnt sign_ ,’ Dick tells him, ‘ _I’m going to count that as one hell of a commitment._ ’

“Count it as whatever you’d like,” Jason grumbles, but he’s still smiling as he lowers his head and kisses his soulmate.


End file.
